The Orphan House by Ann Bennett
Genre: Historical fiction, chick lit/women's fiction, Dual timeline
Read: 6th June 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 28th February 2020)
★★★★ 4 stars
Baby born 5th September 1934 approximately. Place of birth, unknown; father, unknown; mother unknown.
But all these unknowns add up to one thing that is perfectly clear...someone knows something.
It's 1934 and Connie Burroughs sees her father, the Reverend Ezra Burroughs, holding a bundle in his arms. Another abandoned baby left on the steps of Cedar Hall orphanage. But Connie knows that Father will see that the little mite is taken care of as he hands the bundle over to the housekeeper. He will take care of the paperwork and see that the child goes to a good home.
Present day: Sarah Jennings has just experienced the shock of her life. While her chef husband is overseas, police have knocked on her door wanting to go through the financial records of their restaurant business. During this process she discovers that not only was Alex mixed up with some questionable business partners but he appears to be having an affair as well. Packing her bags and leaving immediately, Sarah drives to the small Berkshire village where her father now lives.
But for some reason upon arrival in Weirfield-on-Thames, she stops outside a now derelict and seemingly abandoned Cedar Hall house that once stood adjacent to the foreboding orphanage for many years...until it was demolished to make way for a housing development. There is a For Sale sign hidden amidst the hedgerow and she wonders what secrets lay behind those doors. Sarah knows her father began his life at the orphanage for he made no secret of it and now, as she stands on the doorstep enjoying a cigarette out of the rain, she somehow feels drawn to it. When the real estate agent surprises her with his arrival and offers to show her around she finds she can't refuse. But as she walks through the rooms and its empty halls there is something haunting and sinister about the place. And yet, she is still drawn to it.
Connie Burroughs is the last remaining member of the Burroughs family of Cedar Hall. After sustaining a broken leg in a fall, she now finds herself in long term residential care and that she must sell Cedar Hall to cover her costs. But Connie is the gatekeeper to her father's secrets which lay hidden within the Hall and, according to her father's wishes, she must protect his memory at all costs. Her solicitor removes her belongings and paperwork to keep in trust until she is able to go through them but Connie fears that her father's secrets may come to light if she doesn't personally see to them herself. And yet, all too soon, her promise to her father becomes impossible to keep when, after the Hall is sold, some papers and belongings of his are uncovered.
Before moving into the care home, Connie had some of her most important possessions brought to her and buried deep within her sewing kit is one such thing. A diary, leather-bound and locked, which has remained unread for eight decades even by Connie herself. For in 1934, she found herself entrusted with it by a woman whose face has haunted her since. It is only now that Connie unlocks the diary and begins to read Anna's heartbreaking story.
1934: Anna finds herself in India after a scandal surrounding her father and married off to Lt Col Donald Foster, a man with his own demons. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Anna finds herself largely alone and left to her own devices. She spends days travelling by rickshaw to various places throughout the area to explore and sketch. But one day, she makes a mistake that sends her back to England where she crosses paths with young Connie Burroughs, entrusting her with a secret.
Meanwhile Connie's present dreams take her back to the past as she recalls secrets locked behind closed doors and her desire to know what lay beyond them. But eighty years of secrets has taken its toll on Connie and she wonders how much longer she can protect the truth from being revealed.
Three women whose lives intersect as the past meets the present in tragic circumstances with overwhelming results.
My first book by Ann Bennett, THE ORPHAN HOUSE is a delightful read filled with suspense, mystery and intrigue as Sarah tries to uncover the truth. It is a historical book with a difference in that the only historical timeline is seen through Connie's eyes as she remembers the past and in reading Anna's diary. It was different and yet still enjoyable.
Although I found THE ORPHAN HOUSE a relatively easy read, I thought some of it to be a little convoluted in presentation. For example, when Connie is reliving moments from her past these could have been placed as new chapters and titled "Connie, 1934" to make the past and the present easier to distinguish, rather than throw her memories into the present day chapter. Also with Anna's diary entries, I felt the chapter should also have been given over to Anna completely and titled "Anna, 1934" and kept in italics so the reader knows it is from her diary. Separating chapters into past and present makes for much easy reading and the story flows with greater ease.
While the story is probably somewhat predictable, THE ORPHAN HOUSE is still an enjoyable read taking place in both British India in the 1930s and England both in the past and present day. The ending is a heartfelt and somewhat heartbreaking touch that had me in tears.
Haunted with secrets and regrets, THE ORPHAN HOUSE weaves a tale that spans across oceans and generations that comes full circle by the story's end.
Recommended for a light and yet fulfilling read.
I would like to thank #AnnBennett, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheOrphanHouse in exchange for an honest review.
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